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User blog:IPuella/Because you cannot have it both ways.
One interesting thing about IMO is that sooner or later you will get to know – and perhaps eventually befriend – players from the opposite fraction, since it is not uncommon that people own account on both sides. All these are very well – until you suddenly find out, as you almost always will, that some of your Siras and Lanos friends simply cannot get along with each other. What will you do? What CAN you do? I met A at around the same time I got into my first guild, of which A was one of the members. It was a time when I was still struggling to figure out how exactly the game works (hell, I didn’t know what partying does, didn’t even know how to use the shout function in chat – damn you IMO for terrible in-game instructions :/). Back then A was already of a modest level, and was one of the highest-level members in the guild. He didn’t talk much in guild and usually seemed preoccupied. However, whenever we low level members encounter problems, be it queries about the game or us getting randomly pked, A was always ready to help. He was protective of the guild and of us, and was to us some sort of a brotherly figure. I could not remember exactly how my personal friendship with A developed, but I guess it suffices to say that there is much which I would be willing to do for A’s well-being. It was only later that I gradually came to know A is reputed as a pker, and it was on the issue of pking where we have had our few disagreements and conflicts. A has his own way of viewing pking: to him pking is something of a challenge and is entirely an impersonal matter, and he usually pks for thrill rather than out of any spite or malice. Needless to say, though A never randomly pks people way lower in level, and never opens fire on training grounds unless attacked, his pking habit in general has resulted in him being hated by quite a number of Siras players. Then on the other hand there is R from Siras, a high-level player for whom I have much respect. R himself never pks except for good reasons, and he tries hard to get his guild members to do the same – though not without occasional failures, and I guess as his guild grows large one or two rotten apples could easily ruin the name of the guild. How exactly did the conflict between R and A start is something beyond my time in IMO, and both sides have a different story to tell. I am inclined to think that both might have wronged each other, might have misrepresented or been misrepresented about each other, and that misunderstandings continued to brew their hatred for each other to such a point that is insoluble. Now, the reader may think that the balance of justice is more tilted in R’s favour, but I should ask that this conclusion be not lightly drawn without knowing the full picture, something which even I have failed to grasp – for the A I know is not someone ill-natured, though he can be a bit hard-headed or moody at times. To over-punish someone for a wrong he did, I think, is but another form of injustice. Anyhow R’s guild and A are pretty much in perpetual war, with A kosing R’s guild members and, in return, R kosing and spawning A whenever he catches the chance. Lately, with a recent truce having been broken, the conflict escalated and was brought onto training grounds; I know not and wish not to comment on who was at fault, for things I heard are necessarily one-sided. Not being able to train was starting to ruin much of the game for A; the situation had thus created for me a dilemma. I owe dual obligations to A, both as a friend and as a guildie; I will never see A killed, not if I can help it. Yet on the other hand it would be greatly against my wishes should R got harmed as a directly result of me helping A. Two such confrontations I dread occurred, one on the beach and another on hsp. Both times I was nearby when R was chasing after A; I hsed A and froze and stunned R, secretly hoping that R will get away before A eventually kills him. Fortunately (at least from my point of view), neither occasion has resulted in the death of either party. But what added to my guilty conscience was that R could have killed me and yet he didn’t; hell, he didn’t even attack me, not when I was attempting to save A, nor when he saw me alone after A left. Should R be a man less tolerant, I guess I would have already been kos by now. For I have never forgotten what KaSha once said, that when you hs someone kos by another, then in the eyes of that other you are as bad as the one who is kos. Still I have made my choice, and whatever follows should be a price which I willingly pay. Following these incidents A vowed to kos all R’s guild members, even on training grounds. I strongly advised A against it, not just because I see it unfair to R’s guild but also because up till now R has basically left our guild untouched. What is between A and R should stay between them, and I think it best if no other will be caught up in it. Undeniably some of R’s guild members are irritating, but not all deserve to be kosed. A, partly out of frustration and partly for not wanting to get us guildies involved just in case, left the guild without even discussing with us first – a decision which had much shocked us. Feeling indebted to both parties, twice I asked R for a truce between A and R’s guild, even offered to personally guarantee it, and yet to no avail. That was a time when I felt much frustrated and depressed – such feeling of helplessness, for not being able to do a single thing, however much I cared. Miraculously, life may, by chance, offer imperfect solution to some of its problems, for better or worse. As things turned out, A was offered an opportunity, which he did take, to join another guild at truce with R’s; it seems that, at least for now, temporary peace is granted to both parties. Though the solution is far from perfect it might as well be the best one at the moment; still, I have mixed feelings about it, for it implies that A is unlikely to come back to his old guild any time soon. I so wish that the problem between A and R could eventually be resolved without either party’s death, for both are actually wonderful and decent persons whom I know. Yet this is probably a mere fantasy of mine; perhaps A is right in saying it is simply a fact of life that not everyone can get along nicely together, and that sometimes one has to accept that there is simply no way to make everyone truly happy. I know not what to think, or to hope; but, for the time being, all the best to all my friends. Category:Blog posts